Крипторынок в спокойствии: Zcash теряет ключевых разработчиков, Morgan Stanley выходит на рынки ETF Translation: Headline: Crypto Market in Calmness: Zcash Loses Key Developers, Morgan Stanley Enters ETF Markets

Bitcoin attempted to surpass the $95,000 mark, key developers of Zcash departed from the team, Truebit’s token plummeted following a hack, Morgan Stanley filed for a crypto ETF launch, among other events from the past week.

The first full week of 2026 was relatively calm for the cryptocurrency market. Bitcoin started the week with a rise above $93,000.

The increase in prices was attributed to a worldwide «asset rally.» The dynamics of digital currencies synchronized with the movements of Asian exchanges.

Additionally, the situation in Venezuela was pointed out as a contributing factor. Investors closely monitored developments in the country, especially concerning indications of a «strategic entry» by the U.S. into the oil sector.

The news of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro being captured and transported to New York provided further momentum. According to Jeff Ko, lead analyst at CoinEx Research, this event triggered a chain reaction: oil prices saw a slight decline, and tensions in the Middle East intensified, with the Israeli opposition urging Iran to learn from the Venezuelan scenario.

By Tuesday, Bitcoin had risen close to $95,000, though this level turned out to be a temporary peak.

Around the middle of the week, Bitcoin entered a correction phase, dropping back to previously established levels near $90,000.

At the time of writing, digital gold is trading at $90,700, showing minimal price change over the past week. Its market capitalization stands at $1.8 trillion.

Other top-10 assets followed the lead of Bitcoin, with the exception of BNB (+3% over the week) and DOGE (-8%).

The Cryptocurrency Fear and Greed Index managed to leave the «extreme fear» zone, rising to 29 points.

By the end of the week, the total market capitalization of cryptocurrencies reached $3.18 trillion. Bitcoin’s dominance index stands at 56.9%, while Ethereum’s is at 11.8%.

On January 7, it was revealed that the main developers of the anonymous coin Zcash — the Electric Coin Company (ECC) team — had left the project en masse. According to former CEO Josh Swihart, this decision resulted from internal conflict.

He explained that most members of the Bootstrap nonprofit’s board acted contrary to the mission of the private cryptocurrency.

«In short, the terms of our employment were altered in a way that made it impossible for us to effectively and ethically perform our duties,» added Swihart.

The former ECC employees plan to create a new organization while maintaining their original goal of establishing «unstoppable private money.» The Zcash protocol itself is expected to remain unaffected by the team’s departure and will continue to operate normally.

Co-founder of Helius Labs, Mert Mumtaz, described the situation as a «bullish signal» for the asset and predicted a rise in ZEC to $10,000.

«The most competent individuals in Zcash (along with Tachyon, of course) are now free from the shackles of ineffective corporate policies,» he added.

Nonetheless, the market reacted negatively to the news in the short term. ZEC dropped from $530 to $385, losing nearly 30% in value over the week.

Amid a weakening asset, Monero (XMR) took the lead in the anonymous coin segment. The cryptocurrency’s price reached $500, marking a 15% increase over the week.

On January 8, hackers attacked the Truebit Ethereum verification protocol, withdrawing 8,535 ETH (approximately $26.4 million at the time of the incident).

The project team reported that only one smart contract was affected. The reasons for the hack and the exact amount of damage have not yet been disclosed by the developers, who are cooperating with law enforcement.

An independent researcher known as Weilin (William) Li speculated that the hackers exploited a vulnerability in the token issuance function due to an incorrectly set price in a legacy contract deployed around five years ago.

This allowed them to acquire native TRU coins at an artificially depreciated rate. The expert believes that two independent groups participated in the hack, with the first profiting about $26 million and the second around $250,000.

The attack severely impacted the TRU token, which almost lost its value, crashing to 100%. At the time of writing, the coin trades at approximately $0.000071.

On January 6, investment bank Morgan Stanley submitted applications to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to launch two spot ETFs.

According to the documents, one product will track the price of Bitcoin, while the other will focus on Solana. If approved, over 19 million clients of the company’s wealth management division will gain access to these tools.

ProCap’s investment director, Jeff Park, believes that the bank will benefit from initiating its own exchange-traded crypto funds, even if their returns are modest. He stated that Morgan Stanley is betting on long-term image advantages rather than just capital inflows.

Park views the existence of a spot Bitcoin ETF as evidence of «foresight and courage» from asset managers. It helps create an image of a progressive company, which is particularly important in the competition for talented employees.

«This is a positive external factor that will aid in recruiting top specialists amid competitors,» emphasized the investment director.

He also highlighted Morgan Stanley’s plans to monetize its brokerage unit ETRADE through partnerships in tokenization and crypto trading.

Morningstar analyst Brian Armor suggested that Morgan Stanley’s «unexpected» move aims to steer existing clients to its proprietary funds.

«The bank’s entry into the crypto ETF sector will add legitimacy to the market, and others may follow suit,» added the expert.

During the week, it was announced that the platform for launching meme tokens, Pump.fun, would change its commission reward system for content creators. According to co-founder Alon Cohen, the existing model proved insufficiently beneficial.

The Dynamic Fees V1 mechanism implemented last year attracted new developers and triggered a surge in on-chain activity, but it «failed to significantly alter the behavior of the average token user,» the project representative emphasized.

Cohen believes that «dynamic fees» encourage token creation but do not incentivize trading. He termed this situation dangerous, as traders are a «vital element of the platform.»

The first announced changes will allow for fee distribution among content creators (up to 10 wallets).

The feature will enable the transfer of ownership rights to coins and the revocation of update permissions. Additionally, creators and administrators of Community Takeover will be able to adjust fee sizes after the token launch.

The rollout of these changes is slated for 2026. Cohen did not disclose exact timelines, promising to adhere to «market principles.»

Amid the announcement, the native token of the «meme token factory,» PUMP, gained nearly 7% over the week.